


Poor Sweet Dead Ophelia

by dearyst



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: Age Difference, Conflict, F/F, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 19:53:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7545825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearyst/pseuds/dearyst
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after the Oak Room Carol  and Therese are reunited but not quite reconciled. They end up at Therese's apartment where there is soon a massive 'break-down in communication' as they say. Bratty Therese has been hankering for just such a break-down for months. However, she could not anticipate the way such an encounter would affect her Valkyric former lover.</p>
<p>*When reading this I  would suggest you keep your browser window fairly small. It's a lot more enjoyable that way. Things are more compact and flow better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Poor Sweet Dead Ophelia

"I had to fight for my child Therese..."  
Therese Belivet savors the soothing yet provacative hum of the older womans throaty voice. She can even feel it in her body sometimes.She has missed that. For months.  
"What kind of woman would I be if I just.."  
Now, as she has also done for months, Therese contemplates slapping the sense out of Carol Aird.The first time the thought arrived in her mind, unbidden, it was a horror to her. Her own childhood memories of the sting, the ringing in the ears, projected onto the first real love of her life, brought tears to her eyes.  
" Is _that_ who you want to ..be with?"  
As Carols abscence wore on, however, the vision became easier to bear. It became an animated, even bloody vignette, that young Therese revisited often and of her own accord.  
"With everything you've been through..growing up.. what you're telling me..." the blonde stops,smirks bitterly "I guess that _would_ make sense wouldn'--"  
"How dare you!"  
"How dare _you!_ You want me to apologize for--"  
"HOow DARE you!!" Not quite meaning to,Therese worries off one of her pumps and sends it sailing. "Get out of my house!" She barks.  
The shoe doesn't hit Carol and Therese stifles a sigh of relief. That is until the frosty blonde, suddenly flushed as a sunburnt farm hand, strides over and takes hold of both Therese's wrists.  
" _Llllower your voice_.. and do not EVER," Carol roars, her breath vibrating with rage, "THROW anything at me--e-VER!"  
"Fuck you.." Therese retorts weakly. Carol tightens her grip. Therese gasps, realizing for the first time even since Frankenburgs, just how much smaller she is. "I should spit in your face." the feckless girl declares.  
Carol grins through gritted teeth "And I should _sit_ on yours dearest." she gives Therese's trembling wrists an extra little squeeze "Fuck me indeed," and the brunette can feel her sex bloom obediantly.  
"But first" Carol insists "I need to know, if you un-der-stand ...me, girl."  
Feeling more female than she has ever felt in her life, Therese remains defiant," I HATE you. It d-didn't even land anywhere near you and you're fucking hurting m-meeee!?" she growls hoarsely "Let me g-go you m-mannish old CUNT!"  
"I WILL." Beautiful face twitching, Carol suddenly releases Thereses wrists. The younger woman stumbles, nearly falling to the floor. "I don't need this.." Carol rasps, inhaling sharply. She edges backward. The fury and the color with it drain from her face. Without exhaling Carol wonders " How could I possibly need this?" and the expression on her face is unlike anything Therese has seen upon it before. It's as if Therese had slapped her after all.  
"You're a child." Carol looks ill. " A damn child." She turns akwardly for the door ignoring her coat and purse. Even so, Therese mouths,  
" _I dare you._ "  
Carol continues toward the door.  
" Am I a child, Carol?" Therese wonders, crouched now, demonically, where she stood. She considers grabbing Carols coat, emptying the purse of its contents and flinging it aside like the shoe. "'Cuase I'm pretty sure you took that from me"  
Her back against the door Carol shudders. She sinks to the floor. "Clearly." Carol spits in breathless digust, "And I ...killed Christ too! Oh ..fuck your- _self_!" she gasps, "Sure you'd like to ....pretend..with the games you play ..and the.. shoes you.. toss. You may want to behave ..childishly.. but Im fairly certain your... twenty-first birthday despensed with your .... _being_ a child if your .....eighteenth didn't...do the tr..ick.."  
Therese narrows her eyes.  
"I don't exactly remember ...drawing blood anyway." Carol adds with a nod. "You'll get your little ..white wedding ...yet Belivet. Or not.."  
" 'Or not' ." Therese chuckles venomously " I'dve already had it if it weren't for you Aird , you cock-sucking cunt-licking idle rich bitch from hell." Carol blinks. "What else _have_ you to do but _FUCK_ your pointless _syphilitic_ over-grown tow-headed bimbo life away?"  
At once impressed and dismayed, Carol lifts a shaking hand to the doorknob breathing heavily through her nose.  
"You little.. twat. You sweet simpering gutter rat..I never wouldv'e... _imagined_ the ...mouth on you." she whispers.  
Blushing, Therese grins insolently.  
Carol sneers,"How absolutely darling is ...this.", she coughs "And if classism is ...what you're into, _shop girl_ \--"  
Therese interjects " _First of_ \--"  
"--I suppose I shouldve.. KNOWN!"  
Carols eyes flutter shut. Heart in her throat, generous lips tucked away into her mouth, she envisions a recurring dream she's been having, of stumbling through a wall of glass. _The fall opens her up at the arm pit. She lies on the floor in a dark spreading pool gasping._ Carol wishes she could call it a nightmare, but the truth is it never feels like one. There's no pain. Infact there is a kind of pleasure. An awful peace. Returning reluctantly to the present moment, she opens her eyes to glare at the apparently mad young woman glaring right back at her. This, Carol definitely does consider to be a painful, nightmare scenario. Still her life for the past few months has been nothing else. If she were Therese's age with Therese's history, she might be hurtling shoes about her own damned self . On principle she feels she must try and endure the whirlwind she is reaping. The other part of it is, as she realized that fateful day in court, sheer neccesity. She is here dealing with Therese largely for the same reason she'd stayed away before and dealt with Harge: for Rindy's sake. What use is a mother that _dreams_ of bleeding to death?  
"Therese..?"  
Silence.  
"Where is...my pistol?"  
The crouched girls narrowed eyes widden. Guilty dimples wink as another set of lips dissappears. Carol moistens her own rouged pair, further fading its artificial bloom.  
"Its ..been missing since...."  
Therese's eyes shrink back and dart away. " How can I be classist? That doesn't make any sense."  
Carol ignores Therese's feeble attempt to deflect.Groaning a bit with every other exhale,Carol inclines her head watchfully, cruelly, "I've.. looked and looked..." she begs "Where could it be ..Therese?"  
Therese shifts into a kneeling position, noticing abrubtly, the clammy sheen on Carols face. The most beautiful face she has ever seen is suddenly the most frightening death mask this side of the grave. It makes her want to throw up. " You dont need--" _what the hell is happening?_ She stops herself, offering up a desparate silent prayer, _please god make this hideousness go away, I really want to love her,_ "This isn't cute Carol.."  
Clutching the doorknob Carol reminds Therese, " ..it's _mine._ An' you neither.. know nor ...care... what I need."  
Therese swallows.  
" It's my property Therese," Carol laments. "..all I have."  
"Stop it."  
" 's all I ..want."  
"What about..Rindy?"  
_My child is my property_.  
Carol bares her teeth thoughfully," What _a..bout_ RIN-dy?" she muses, "What about ...her mmmh? But most importantly, above.... God, man ... _fish and fowl_ , ..what about Theresssse... fucking _Beli-vet?_ " she hisses.  
"I was a...you were my..." Therese fumbles feeling cold.Even so the grotesque spectre is fading from Carols face just as abrubtly as it appeared. "You can't just..."  
Today has been a bit of a Kabuki dance. Therese knows she is being somewhat unfair but the past few months have been utter hell. The fact is she hadn't _known_ Carol, of the unrelenting silence, would return to her. She could barely even allow her self to hope at lunch earlier.It simply was't logical. Before she'd decided to acknowledge and accept that, she'd begun to hate herself more and more.Part of how Therese had clawed her way through the ordeal was to project that self-loathing elsewhere. She'd had to put aside all compassion for Carol, to demonize her as a predator.  
Now however, she's hoping she won't have to send for an ambulance. Therese sniffs. How much had Carol been drinking at the Oak Room before Therese's arrival...or before that, after Therese had rejected her in hollow triumph. She hadn't seemed drunk before and doesn't smell drunk now..so...  
Carol nods knowingly,"I was a..24 karat gold be-cunted _virgin_ too once upon a time." She coos, "Believe it or not . And on my.. wedding night, ..unlike s-some people...I know," The recent defloweree of sorts rolls her eyes. Carol, in turn, batts her own and snarls " I _b..led._ "  
Horrified, the metallic taste of her own tongue takes Therese back to the moment she found Carols gun, watched her cock it at that bastard spook in the hotel room months ago.No, Therese cannot exactly say where that thing is. She'd made sure of it.  
Carol falls silent, nauseated. She leans back against the door glaring glassily at Therese from behind endless limbs folded into a position just barely decent. She supposes, that she (they really) should probably move away from the door.On the other hand, Carol reckons haughtily, that it may be just another day in paradise in a place like this. She is happy to provide Therese with whatever incentive to move.Carol wouldn't deliberately embarrass herself or Therese, but if she has, good. Therese started it anyway.  
Actually she ought to make Therese hand her her purse.The girl probably thinks she is drunk. If she only knew how much worse it could get. At least this time it makes some sort of sense..and she isn't alone.  
"I've been fighting... for my life ...months.. Therese...and now you... lure me here... jus' to... torture me more..like " Carol is enjoying the perturbation dawning on the younger womans face as she peers beyond her own glamouried dozen weeks of pain. She releases the door knob and curls up on the floor "..like you don't... know any better..like its been so.... easy for me...and I didn't even .. _try_ to ...explain _anything_.."  
_I shouldve said, Therese..wait..._  
"--But I DID!" Carol thinks aloud,into the floor. " I did." Therese gets up, removing her remaining shoe as she goes, and tip toes toward the protstrate wheezing woman. "You may not have understood... trusted.. but I DID. And I regretted it..trying to..hold your life hostage. ...Bad enough for a.. man to do... never mind...the likes of ..me.."  
"Carol just stop please..you're barely breathing.. you need--"  
Carol sighs raggedly "...Therese. It's just ..nerves.It's not even..that bad right now. It'll pass."  
"..What?"  
"Jus' hand me my... purse, would you?"  
_"What?"_  
"My.. medicine, Therese it's.."  
"Oh!" The brunette skitters over to where Carol left her purse.She opens it and proceeds to rumage through it.  
"Chi.. _rist_ ...Therese.." Carol groans, "Just ....bring it h--"  
But Therese has found the small ivory pill box.  
"Is this it?"  
Carol nods "..Mmmh." she grunts. Therese pads quickly to the door to kneel next to Carol. Afraid to touch her Therese clutches the pill box nervously to her chest. Carol gathers her strength. "...water..?" she manages. Therese rises and Carol closes her eyes once more, wincing with exhaustion. She remains that way until Therese returns and Carol hears the tap of a cup on the floor. With effort Carol pushes herself back up into a sitting position. As Therese watches Carol collapse against the door again,panting, she begins to wriggle out of her suit-jacket. The box balanced on her lap, Therese feels a bit self-conscious as room temperature air cools her dampened under arms.  
Head bowed, Carol works in vain at the buttons on her own fine ensemble. Behind wilting blonde curls that had been so exquisitely coiffed Carols proud chin quivers and her lower lip recedes, catching at a sudden sliver of wet. Realization dawning, Therese places the pill box on the floor. Careful of the cup she scoots closer to Carol and presses her forehead against the blondes. Therese can feel and smell the heat baking off of her. "I'm so sorry," She breathes, grasping oddly cool shaking hands, lowering them.  
Carols voice hitches,"I..under..s-st--"  
"Carol just--"  
"--i's n-not your ..f-f--"  
With only slightly parted lips,Therese leans in and stops Carols mouth with her own. She cherishes the firmiliar taste of Carols lipstick and the foreign salt of her tears. As Carol sobs into the kiss Therese undoes the hand-stitched buttons on the older womans jacket.  
"It's not your fault either Carol." Therese assures the blonde breaking the kiss "Just breathe darling..please?"  
"I'm..i'm-m-" Carol croaks. Therese accelerates her ministrations shoving the jacket from Carols shoulders almost roughly.  
" You're trying to speak. Try to breathe." Therese yanks the heavy material as far down Carols arms as she can revealing a pale silk blouse darkened with sweat. Therese can't help but to smile at the sight of it, her face tingling with an affection she has not previously known. The color returns to Carols face. Therese kisses the blondes nose and attempts to wrangle the sleeves of the jacket from around her forearm and wrists.  
"T-Therese?"  
"Hmm?"  
"..I..."  
"Carol? What?"  
"S-shirt Therese ...I can't ..breath."  
Therese only vaguely understands as she abandons the sleeves to work at the delicate buttons of Carols blouse. Soon it falls open and Therese stifles a gasp at the view. Carols ample (ampplified?) bossom heaves behind yet another layer of fabric, this time of satiny meringue-stiff peaks, and lace.  
"Not the buttons... " Carol pants, "Untuck it .. reach under please. I'm cinched..so fucking..oh.."  
Understanding,Therese does as she is told. Under Carols halfway buttoned blouse the girl feels at the band of fabric cinched tight at the womans waist. Carol's body feels significantly different than Therese remebers. She wonders how she didn't immediately see..  
"Jesus ..Carol.."  
_Is all this even necessary, you're skin and bones!_  
"Is this back-laced?"  
Carol nods, breathless.  
"I'm guessing its genuine Dior.." Again Carol confirms,wordlessly "..of course." Therese sighs reaching under the blouse and around to Carols back "How am I gonna..?"  
Carol moans, "J-jus' loosen it, loosen it --p-please!"  
Therese works quickly diligently until finally the cincher slackens and Carol can exhale, take a few proper gulps of air .  
Eventually, Carols breathing steadies a bit and she is able to wrest her wrists from the Chanel on her own. " Thankyou ..Therese" she sighs hands at her solar plexus. "...my angel."  
Therese eyes Carol dubiously, " That was pretty thorough ...Abbys work?"  
"..Perhaps." Carol shrugs, tugging shakily at the fabric.  
"Damnit Carol I.." Therese purses her lips,eyes to the cieling, "So. Abigail Gerhard, is still , _lacing your damn drawers?!_ "  
Dismissively Carol retorts, "Don't go all.. H. F. Belivet," Therese looks perplexed then disgusted, "--on me Therese. And ..I don't wear ..drawers, dearest. I wear lingerie." she points at the cincher, "And this is called a guêpière."  
Therese nods, enlightned. She considers suggesting she _eat_ a grouper ..pie? For various reasons, Therese decides against that one.  
Carol continues, "And it isn't _for_ Abby . She's my friend,Therese..my dearest friend from childhood. She is my childs Godmother! And she's your friend too you know."  
"Oh. Okay. So she's 'Rindy's Godmother' and I'm _Harge_." Therese grimaces, Carol chuckles through her nose, "because I ....you know what,how about I get a _guepiere_..and have _Richard_ lace it! "  
"Are you two even on speaking ..terms at a--"  
"Just for you Carol! I want to do that for you so--"  
"'Cause ya' know I think Jack--"  
"--soo sincerely."  
" -might be a.. better candidate for that."  
" So.  
Sincerely.  
Carol."  
"Fine." Carol sniffs, snatching up the pill box. " You unappreciative little brat." She opens it and removes two tiny white disks " I'll never wear the damn thing again. _Drawers_ it is ..henceforth." Carol raises the dour-faced Therese a water toast, "Cheers to you," and downs the pills.  
" What is that? "  
Carol finishes the water " What, the pills?" Therese nods. "Equanil tablets dear. Meprobamate, I believe its called ..been taking it on and off for ages," she shrugs, "Get used to it darling, this is what comes of.. being with an old mare like me."  
"E q u a n i l.." Therese muses "Not Mill..town..?"  
"Miltown." Carol raises an eyebrow, curls her lip "Oh everyones just _raving_ about that. _Gods_ no! That quack Harge sent me to wanted to ..put me on that." Carol places the cup back on the floor " Just the name of it; _Miltown_. Ugh."  
"Harge...sent you to a quack?"  
"I thought I.." Therese shakes her head, "..wrote you.."  
Carol runs eternally crimson tipped fingers through her hair " I'm sure I..Oh Therese..I've really had enough for tonight. I need a bath and a half...really more of a half before I pass out...once the medicine kicks in." She peers at Therese, uncertain. Therese crawls closer kisses her sweaty forhead, her tear stained cheek, the corner of her mouth and one of her favorite spots, the little divet under Carols angular jaw, just behind her chin.. This Therese cannot restrain herself from biting.  
"..Therese.." Carol murmers, her breath quickening again.  
"Your chin is so fucking gorgeous." Therese rasps gutturally.  
"What?" Carol giggles helplessly.  
Therese kisses sucks and bites her way down to carols neck. She breathes in the adorable scent of her, loving the feel of Carols jugular vein pulsing against her tongue, a bit too quick, too hard. Therese lingers there callously.  
"Therese..stop. I can't" Carol protests huskily.  
Despite the aurally and physically intoxicating sensation of Carols voice Therese relents. Her expression, however, demands.  
"...I just told you...can't you see I'm not feeling well?" Carol complains.  
Chagrined, Thereses mouth quirks to one side. " I thought you were feeling better.."  
Carol carresses her chin, " Therese all I've wanted..for ever is just to lie with you in bed...just..that would be absolute heaven.." Carol smiles fondly, "You feel like heaven even now but..I'm telling you I'll pass out right here..just from that and you'll have to..finish on your own" Therese grins mischieviously, shrugs. "You'll also have to bring pillows and ..blankets and sleep right here with me." Carol threatens, "And that'll be who we are. Just as godless as they like to think...fighting, fucking and ..sleeping at the goddamned door in our sunday best," Therese snorts at Carols horror, " --like a pair of ..savages from beyond the vei--It isn't funny Therese." Carol pinches Therese's side, making her chortle harder.  
"Don't you mean savages flung out of--"  
"--Oh har har Therese. As a matter of fact I do miss my Angel. Where is my _sweet_ Therese with her, with her.. what's it called? That little hat with the popom.."  
"...But isn't she a simpering gutter-rat?"  
" _She_ isn't."  
"Well she is dead and gone." Therese accuses somberly.  
"Don't say that Therese."  
" _She is de-ad and go-one lady, She is de-ad and gone, at her head_ \--"  
" _\--A sant-a-a hat._ " Carol sings along, "I guess thats that then." she sighs, reaching for Therese, "Help me up." Pausing to enagage her considerable feminine wiles, Carol bites her plush lower lip, "You can give me a little bath." she purrs, "Would that entertain you? Might that revive our poor sweet dead Ophelia?"  
Therese shifts position and clasps Carols elegant hands, "..Maaybe." she intones "..Might as well get used to that too right?"  
Carol begins to smirk. In a flash her eyes narrow, her neck turns "..Of all the _nerve_.." Therese giggles and drops back to the floor beside her, hysterical, the lyrics to Old Gray Mare twanging in her head. She's glad she can barely breathe or she'd be tempted to start singing them. Carol can't help but to laugh herself struggling to her feet as Therese writhes, choking with mirth. "I'll do it myself you little minx!"  
"..No!" Therese manages to protest. "You don't even (giggle) know where the (chortle) bathroom is."  
Carol gathers up her jacket " I've been here before," she reminds the brunette, "And even if I hadn't, _Nurse Belivet_ , a needle in a haystack wouldn't be too difficult to find in a sardine tin such as this. Senile or not." Therese gasps through her giggles at the insult to her beautiful home.  
In both her heels,and half her shirt, Carol stands heroically. And heroically, the blonde sways, blinking against the stars in her vision as the blood rushes to her head.  
"Therese.."  
Therese smirks smugly and scrambles to her feet to support the taller woman, before she totters out of her stillettos.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure how long it was that Carol and Therese were apart based on the book or the film. For some reason I'm thinking it was about two or three months. In the book Therese started out 19 and toward the end she was claiming to be 21. I'm not sure if she was misrepping herself for whatever reason or what. In any case whether it was two months or closer to twelve I've been through so much worse (with no explanation) and I've often felt that Therese is a brat (or became a brat anyway) so I thought, 'let's explore this'.  
> 


End file.
